The first thing Emma Swan noticed about Regina Mills was her smile. Not the plastic smile of a mayor or queen. Her real smile. The sheriff could tell you the exact moment she had seen it for the first time. She had just arrived in Storybrooke. Henry came in to view of the foyer window as he stepped past the hedges; the mayor immediately fled out of her sizable home to hold her son once again. Regina had, of course, assumed the worst. That was her modus operandi. When she saw the small boy, it was as though every worry or pain she had ever experienced washed away. Her innocence shone through. When Emma saw that smile again at the mine, she knew she wanted to see it more often. Breathtaking, she had thought. With that, the blonde realized that not only did she want to see the mayor's happiness come to fruition, but wanted to be the cause of it as well.

It took time, but the sheriff was patient. (A useful skill when your most pressing emergency call is a cat stuck in a tree.) At first the smiles were hesitant, her muscles wholly uncooperative after years of scowling defensively at all those who dared even a passing glance in her direction. Then, awkward, as though the brunette was unsure she was doing it right. Finally, one night she let her walls down. Maybe she forgot she needed them, or maybe she didn't think she really needed them anymore. Around Emma, at least.

Henry had been regaling his mothers with stories from his day at school as they stood in the mansion's kitchen, when the most beautiful smile the sheriff had ever seen graced Regina's face. The mayor glanced up at her from her son's retelling of the game of four square he won that day during recess to catch her girlfriend's eye, sending her a soft, loving smile. It said, look what we did; it said everything the brunette couldn't.

Emma didn't know her heart could feel so full.

She didn't need much - at least one call a week that didn't involve saving the animal population of Storybrooke, time with her family (even her parents, though they did make her want to jump out of her skin at times), and those smiles. God, she needed those smiles.